Blumenthal: No immigration enforcement at schools

By Bill Cummings

Published 1:04 pm, Sunday, April 9, 2017

U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn, is among a group of senators backing a bill that would prevent immigration enforcement at sensitive locations like schools, hospitals and religious institutions.

The Protecting Sensitive Locations Act codifies the Department of Homeland Security’s existing policies and expands on those policies to ensure that immigrants are able to access education, criminal justice, and social services without fear of deportation. Enforcement could only occur with prior approval and under emergency circumstances.

“I am especially appalled by reports that ICE agents stalking the hallways of courthouses have frightened women suffering from domestic abuse away from reporting their abusers or seeking relief through our justice system,” the senator said. “We should focus law enforcement resources on real threats to public safety, not schoolchildren, church parishioners, or pregnant mothers who are going to see the doctor.”

“We commend Sen. Blumenthal and the senators who have co-sponsored legislation that would block immigration enforcement actions in sensitive areas,” Hernandez said.

“In the past few weeks, ICE has detained a father dropping off his children at school in California and apprehended a mother with a brain tumor in a hospital in Texas, among other reprehensible actions,” Hernandez added. “These violations of common decency undermine the immigrant community's confidence in basic institutions like schools and hospitals, and they jeopardize the safety of children, the sick, and other vulnerable bystanders.”